Film Score Friday 7/13/01

John Powell has replaced Elmer Bernstein on The Rat Race, proving that for summer movie composers, it's still a mad mad mad mad world.

David Shire is scoring Edward Burns' new movie, Ash Wednesday. The actor/director was attracted to Shire as a composer by his brilliant score to 1974's The Conversation, now available -- at last -- from Intrada on CD. See http://www.intrada.com/conver.htm.

Now available at Intrada and other specialty shops (Screen Archives, Footlight Records, and more -- see our links section) are some terific imports from the French division of Warner Bros. Records. These include Ennio Morricone's bizarre The Exorcist II, Lalo Schifrin's gorgeous OST to The Fox, Michel Legrand's Summer of '42, Jerry Fielding's jazzy The Gauntlet, and some real funk classics: Quincy Jones's Dollar$ and J.J. Johnson's Cleopatra Jones. Put it next to Alex North's Cleopatra in your collection!

Looking at Intrada's new release list this week, I see Scarface (Giorgio Moroder) from MCA in Germany -- another title previously available only on vinyl that fans have long wanted on disc.

Varese Sarabande has released a Philippe Sarde CD of Sister Mary Explains It All also including Lovesick (26 min.) and The Manhattan Project (18 min.).

As we reported yesterday, legendary Hammer horror composer James Bernard has passed away. We'll have a proper obituary in FSM; in the meantime, see the thread on our message board, and here's a letter from a moved reader:

From: MarcGothic@aol.com

I sit here for the first time with tears in my eyes for a fallen composer. The wonderful James Bernard passed away last night. I shall always remember when I met him at a horror convention 7 years ago. Just last week I drove into New York to Footlight Records to pick up the latest Hammer release from GDI, She and Vengence of She. James Bernard had just written the liner notes in May. He was a kind and gentle man who was always accesible to his fans. I remember how in 1994 he was ready to get back to work. His score for the restored 1922 classic Nosferatu is probably the best thing he ever composed. Everytime a new issue of Film Score Monthly would come I would check the B section to see if there was an upcoming assignment. He was only 75 years young. Not to be. I know I will miss him. Of course his music remains and I shall always treasure that.

Got a couple of emails from Japanese readers about upcoming CDs in their country. Regarding a reissue series of Kurosawa CDs (see last Friday's column):

From: "Sow Kamishiro" <sow@mars.dti.ne.jp>

About Kurosawa Soundtracks

I hear it's difficult to sell outside Japan. Because TOHO MUSIC does not have the sales rights of some KUROSAWA's movies in foreign countries. At least this time they are not going to ship outside Japan.

Here are the details:

13 CDs each \2500

1) Shichinin no samurai (1954)... aka The Seven Samurai

2) Ikiru (1952)... aka To Live
Ikimono no kiroku (1955)... aka I Live in Fear
Donzoko (1957)... aka The Lower Depths

3) Kumonosu jo (1957)... aka Macbeth

4) Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958)... aka The Hidden Fortress

5) Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru (1960)... aka The Bad Sleep Well

6) Yojimbo (1961)

7) Sanjuro (1962)

8) Tengoku to jigoku (1963)... aka High and Low

9) Akahige (1965)... aka Red Beard

10) Dodesukaden (1970)... aka Clickety-Clack
Dersu Uzala (1974)

11) Kagemusha (1980)... aka Shadow Warrior

12) Ran (1985)... aka Ran

13) Yume (1990)... aka Dreams
Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku (1991)... aka Rhapsody in August
Madadayo (1993)... aka Not Yet

BOX SETS each \12000
VOL.1 includes 1,2,3,4,5 & 1 bonus CD
VOL.2 includes 6,7,8,9 & 2 bonus CDs
VOL.3 includes 10,11,12,13 & 2 bonus CDs

Also, in John Williams news:

From: "Peter Daley" <petedaley@hotmail.com>

Just thought your Japanese readers would be interested in this:

johnwilliams.org has some info about the Deutsche Grammophon release of a John Williams / Gil Shaham CD that contains, TreeSong, A revised verion of Williams' Violin Concerto and 3 pieces from Schindler's List.

The US release date is given as September 18. I emailed Deutsche Grammophon and they informed me that the CD wil be released 2 months earlier here in Japan. It should be in stores on July 25.

Roman Deppe has seen a sneak preview of Jurassic Park III in Germany and has sent his customary early opinion. I've posted it to our messageboard because I don't have room in today's column: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/Forum1/HTML/002417.html.

From: Fred Berger, PogoPoole@aol.com

Subject: BEWARE: "THE PAJAMA GAME"

I just purchased a copy of "The Original Soundtrack Recordings" of "Calamity Jane" and "The Pajama Game" through the web on the Columbia label ( MADE IN AUSTRIA). You have no idea how long I've been waiting for "The Pajama Game" to come out on CD, since my box of old 45's is getting pretty scratchy. But when I got the CD, it was missing the overture, "Hey, There," "Steam Heat," and "71/2 Cents."

So it's not the original soundtrack recording after all. Too bad - it's one of the best movie soundtracks of a stage musical. So I guess it's back to the scratchy, old 45's. Just wanted to warn prospective buyers.

From: "Bob & Lynn Bryden" <thebrydens@sympatico.ca>

Artificial intelligence, indeed. I went to see A.I. again yesterday. The first time through I kinda got swept up in the 'mystery' of the collaboration and the (usual) visual panache. Second time through. Couldn't believe my gullibility. In 72 hours I have changed my whole opinion of Steven Spielberg. I am no longer going to be 'impressed' by his films in spite of the truck-size holes which exist in nearly every one. The suspicion that this populist prima dona is unbearably shallow is now confirmed. I have never seen a more stupid movie in my life. Let the arrows fly...

From: Maurizio Caschetto <lordsidious@libero.it>

I agree with Lukas' online comment about A.I. (Film Score Friday 7-6-2001) and the way people bash good movies in favour of terrible ones. I haven't still saw A.I. (here the film will be out in October), but I think too that too many good and deeper movies of today - like Fight Club, Eyes Wide Shut, Se7en, The Insider, The Iron Giant... hell, even a big-money maker like Cast Away got bashed from critics and most of the audience - are pretty ignored from the audience or not sufficiently analized by film critics. This is a sore point even for the blockbusters. Why a terrible, hollow, humorless movie like The Mummy Returns is so light-heartedly received, making people saying "Oh, it's just a big popcorn movie and it succeeds to deliver the fun". Hey, people! Do you remember a real entertaining popcorn movie named Raiders of the Lost Ark? That's the blueprint for a great escapist film: it has a great script, witty dialogue, good performances, great visuals, a brassy score... what about The Mummy? It has only loud, Air Force bombing-like sound effects and lousy CGI effects. Silvestri's score, while very good from a musical and orchestrational point of view, it's just too loud in an almost hysteric way. Anyway, I agree with KendallMan's words.. time will do justice and will permit ourselves to lose memory of many horrible movies we saw recently, while taking care about great ones we maybe ignored at the time of their release...

From: "Lester Sullivan" <lsulliva@xula.edu>

In all the talk about "A. I." the movie, only now are people starting to examine in some detail "A. I." the score. Here's hoping that the music on CD makes a greater impression than it did in the theater, where much of it barely came across at very low levels. Parts of it seem derivative of minimalism as found in scores of Philip Glass or Thomas Newman, which must be a first for John Williams. Other parts seem in imitation of the Polish modern classical music used in "2001." Was it hoped that this would give the movie more of a Kubrick feel than a Speilberg one? And this is not the only aspect of the movie in imitation of "2001." The robotic David achieves a higher insight, for example, only after "murdering" one of his mecha look-alikes, just as the pre-man at the start of "2001" achieves a greater degree of humanity through murdering one of another tribe. No other mechas but David seem inclined or even able to do this. The other mecas in the story are harmed only by humans. The biggest shock in the score comes with Williams's music announcing David and Gigolo Joe's entrance into Rouge City, which is a note for note rip-off of a waltz strain from the Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalier." Williams, Goldsmith, and Bernstein are now rather elderly. Is their inspiration failing, will they become written-out, or is it just a matter of mediocre music for the mediocre (or worse) movies of today. "A. I." may look like one hundred million, but it certainly doesn't fell like it, sound like it. Had Kubrick made "A. I.," he would not have used a Hollywood-style background music composer such as Williams (or, were he still alive, Alex North). Whatever Kubrick would have chosen, you can be sure it wouldn't have been the watered-down derivations Williams serves up here. In the wake of "The Phantom Menace" and "The "Patriot," here's another disappointment from the world's most popular movie music composer.

From: Jeff Heise, Jedbu@aol.com

A few weeks ago, I was making one of my rare visits to the west side of LA, and I decided to see if it was possible to stop by your office to purchase the TOWERING INFERNO CD (I had read with great horror about how quickly it was selling and did not want to take a chance). I called and spoke to a young man (pardon me for not remembering his name) who told me that yes, I could pick up a copy of the disc. After searching for the address (and discovering that you are almost Culver City adjacent-10 feet further east and you are in LA!) and almost missing it, I rang the buzzer. I was almost expecting to see many film music enthusiasts sitting around discussing the merits of Horner vs. Shore vs. Zimmer all the while having either Lukas or Jeff running around asking where that exclusive interview with Goldsmith was. Alas, all I found was a lonely guy sitting amongst a great many CDs and back issues and trying to be polite to a rare visitor who was interrupting his work.

Well, you still produce a topnotch magazine and website, and the TI disc is astounding, as I should have expected. I hope that my stopping in was not a major faux pas, and in closing just let me say that the gentleman who assisted me was a pleasure to meet and obviously not paid nearly enough for what he does.

By the way, the last part of the above paragraph was suggested by someone else.

PS: To all those who caught my slip-up regarding the Herrmann/Newman/Academy resignation, my deepest apologies and the hope that it will not happen again.

Everyone here at FSM hereby takes credit for being the person who helped you. Friends, when in Los Angeles, if you like zombified customer service, a neighborhood of liquor stores and industrial buildings, and looking at the inside of concrete walls, visit the FSM offices.

From: Stephen Lister <stephenlister@btinternet.com>

Just received ACE ELI today. I must be one of the six people in the world who doesn't go "Huh?" when this title is mentioned. I saw the movie on British TV absolutely yonks ago, in my "tape dub" period - mike in hand, I was all set to record what I imagined would be another great Goldsmith main title ... but this bloody song came on instead. Now here we are Godknows how many years later and I've just been treated to that main title I was hankering after. Not everyone is partial to the Goldsmith 1970s sound, particularly the pop-idiom style of Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, Shamus, and countless TV movies he did, but it's a sound that always presses my buttons.

Highlights of this score, for me, are "No Escape" (which made me grin from ear to ear, because it conjured up images of an "Alias Smith And Jones" score, so close is it to the John Andrew Tartaglia style of pop-tempo travelling montage music that accompanied Pete Duel and Ben Murphy), "An Act Of Frustration" (frustration is right - it's too darn short!) and "First Flight" (followers of Goldsmith's TV movies will instantly realise this contains the theme from his 1974 TV score "Indict And Convict" - I guess Goldsmith knew the cue had been replaced in the film with Alexander Courage's instrumental arrangement of the song, so he thought "What the hell, I'll recycle it.")

And you know what? After all these years, that "bloody song" is actually kinda fun. I'm getting old.

I LOVE the Ace Eli CD. I hope our happy readers like the music as well, or at least adjust to having Ace Eli be the first CD in their Goldsmith rack, ahead of Air Force One and Alien.

Our CD of A Man Called Peter is featured on Film Music Review's July review page: http://hometown.aol.com/MusBuff/page2.htm.

Have a nice summer weekend! Or winter if you're from Australia.

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com